A year after Hurricane Alicia walloped the Texas coast around Galveston
last summer, the storm has not entirely abated. Having weathered
natural disaster, some 140 beachfront-property owners are facing an
even worse legal catastrophe. Texas law gives the public the right to
use all the beach in the corridor between the sea at low tide and the
natural vegetation line. The violent winds and rain of Hurricane Alicia
tore away such large chunks of land that private, $100,000 homes are no
longer sitting on privately...